Research interests
Research in Sharon's lab is diverse, working across scales, taxa and ecosystems. Historically, the lab has explored how perturbations such as drought, elevated CO2 and habitat fragmentation can influence above- and below-ground carbon and nitrogen cycling. These efforts have been funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy. A current, primary focus is the influence of climate change on interactions between soil microorganisms and soil organic matter, microbial production of CO2and N2O, and microbial population and community dynamics. The lab explores these and related questions in soils from boreal forests, mid-western grasslands and warm temperate forests. Related work explicitly incorporates elements of land use change, disturbance and ecosystem recovery into investigations of biogeochemical cycles, both above and below ground.